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Being Charged With an Offense

At Queen's, you may encounter allegations of plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitating academic dishonesty, submitting counterfeit documents, or falsification. The following are guidelines and things you should note when encountering such a case.

Know Your Rights

As a Queen's student, you have the right:

to know allegations and the basis for them

to respond to allegations

to be heard be an unbiased decision maker

to a timely process

to a clear decision

to an appeal

General Process

If an instructor has evidence for academic dishonesty on your part, they will notify you in writing of their allegations against you.

Afterwards, you and your instructor will have a chance to meet to discuss the allegations and will have to come to a mutually acceptable agreement regarding its outcome. In the case of severe offences, you may be asked to meet directly with the Faculty/School. You can also choose to send in a written response to the allegation. If you do neither, the case will go on without your input and may be less favourable on your part.

If it is decided that there was a departure from of academic integrity, the instructor will notify the Faculty/School of the outcome. If you have had a previous departure, the sanctioning process will be handed to the Faculty/School. If no previous departure exists, the instructor will proceed with a sanction and notify you in writing.

If it was decided that there has been no departure from academic integrity, then all documents will be destroyed and there will be nothing on your record.

An appeal can be made to the Faculty/School representative for decision by an instructor or to the University Student Appeal Board (USAB) for decision by the Faculty/School.

Sanctions

There are a number of sanctions that may be issued if a departure from AI has been found. From least to most serious:

Oral or written warning

Completion of an educational workshop or program

Submission of a new or revised piece of work

Partial or total loss of marks on a piece of work

Partial or total loss of grades in the course

Withdraw from the University for a specified period of time

Rescinding of a degree

Making notations on the Internal Academic Record or Official Transcript in keeping with current policies in this regard

Note: It is possible that a combination of the above could be issued. Also in a case where you are assigned a failure in the course, you may not drop the course, regardless of add/drop deadlines.